Cops: Dealer Charged In 2 Drug Deaths

BAYVILLE – A Bayville man has been charged with drug-induced deaths of two Berkeley Township men.

Cody Lessing, 25, was charged with two counts each of: strict liability drug induced death, manslaughter, possession with the intent to distribute heroin and fentanyl, possession of heroin and fentanyl, and distribution of heroin and fentanyl.

He is being held at the Ocean County Correctional Facility, where he has been since February.

On Feb. 25, Berkeley Township Police received separate 911 calls within hours of each other. James Tice Jr. and Keith Tandberg both died of overdoses that day, both of lethal doses of heroin and fentanyl.

The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office and Berkeley Township Police Department said the investigation immediately led them to Lessing.

Ocean County native Jennifer Peacock is a community journalist and photographer. She’s written for weekly and daily newspapers in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia for more than 20 years. Readers can contact her at [email protected]